Deadline: 16-Dec-21
The Mass Cultural Council is seeking applications for the YouthReach Grant Program to integrate substantive out-of-school arts, humanities, and science opportunities into a collaborative community response to the needs of youth.
For more than 25 years, YouthReach has promoted the integration of substantive out-of-school arts, humanities, and science opportunities into a collaborative response to the needs of young people and communities. YouthReach programs work best when they are youth-driven and when young people are offered opportunities to both widen and deepen their skills in creativity, self-discovery, collaboration, belonging, leadership and advocacy for change. They also support creative youth development programs in holding space to address systemic inequities while working with young people to be creative forces for positive change in their own lives and in their communities.
What makes a program eligible or ineligible?
- The proposed youth programming must be primarily arts, humanities, or interpretive sciences.
- Proposed programs must take place after-school or out-of-school, except ensemble-based music programs, which can occur during school hours.
- K-12 school applicants may only submit applications for ensemble-based music programs. No other disciplines or programs are eligible from K-12 schools.
- Programs should see themselves in this definition: creative youth development (CYD) is a commitment to supporting young people’s stories, ideas, and dreams through creative expression and honoring their lived experiences. In order to create environments that promote creative youth development, these three concepts must be present: racial equity and social justice, youth voices, and collective action.
Eligibility Criteria
- Massachusetts non-profit 501(c)3 organizations
- Massachusetts K-12 schools with ensemble-based music programs
- Programs of state or federal government in Massachusetts
- Massachusetts public colleges/universities
- Applicants using a fiscal agent: Massachusetts-based unincorporated group/association with a non-profit objective, or a Massachusetts-based corporation in the process of obtaining a 501(c)3 designation.
- A fiscal agent can either be a municipal entity, a non-profit entity incorporated in Massachusetts, or registered as a foreign corporation doing business in Massachusetts. If you are considering using a fiscal agent, you are encouraged to talk with Mass Cultural Council staff before you submit an application.
- FY22 SerHacer program grant recipients.
For more information, visit https://massculturalcouncil.org/creative-youth-development/youthreach/application-process/